world news bulletin: US director Sydney Pollack dles.

OSCAR-WINNING director Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay who achieved commercial success and critical acclaim with the gender-bending comedy Tootsie and period drama Out Of Africa, has died of cancer at 73, his agent said yesterday.

Leslee Dart said Pollack died at his home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, surrounded by his family. He had been diagnosed with cancer about nine months ago.

Pollack's biggest success was the 1985 film Out Of Africa, a romantic epic of a woman's passion set against the landscape of colonial Kenya, starring Robert Redford andMeryl Streep. It won seven Oscars, including best director and best picture.

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